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Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood

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  • H. Howell Williams

    (Department of Social Sciences, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT 06810, USA)

Abstract

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination and confirmation featured frequent references to her role as a mother. This article situates these references within the trajectory of American political development to demonstrate how motherhood operates as a mechanism for enforcing a white-centered racial order. Through a close analysis of both the history of politicized motherhood as well as Barrett’s nomination and confirmation hearings, I make a series of claims about motherhood and contemporary conservatism. First, conservatives stress the virtuousness of motherhood through a division between public and private spheres that valorizes the middle-class white mother. Second, conservatives emphasize certain mothering practices associated with the middle-class white family. Third, conservatives leverage an epistemological claim about the universality of mothering experiences to universalize white motherhood. Finally, this universalism obscures how motherhood operates as a site in which power distinguishes between good and bad mothers and allocates resources accordingly. By attending to what I call the “republican motherhood script” operating in contemporary conservatism, I argue that motherhood is an ideological apparatus for enforcing a racial order premised on white protectionism.

Suggested Citation

  • H. Howell Williams, 2021. "Just Mothering: Amy Coney Barrett and the Racial Politics of American Motherhood," Laws, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-14, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:36-:d:553883
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. King, Desmond S. & Smith, Rogers M., 2005. "Racial Orders in American Political Development," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 99(1), pages 75-92, February.
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